


A Brief Introduction to Kelpian-Federation Relations

by Perfect_Square



Series: Kelpians [1]
Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Kelpians, Kelpiens, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 12:28:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14915387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perfect_Square/pseuds/Perfect_Square





	A Brief Introduction to Kelpian-Federation Relations

First Contact with Kelpian Society first occurred in 2156 when the federation vessel Excalibur answered a distress signal in Kelpian space. Excalibur and it’s captain Janelle Thomson, were not authorized to conduct first contact procedures with a pre-warp society. The Kelpian Captain, or “herd-leader” as translated by the Universal Translator, petitioned for refugee status, or more literally for “shelter” again as interpreted by the universal translator. The “Herd-leader” known as Solsu (one of three gender variants of the Kelpian name-word for hope) explained that the Kelpians on board had two main problems. 1) A dwindling food supply and 2) the ever-encroaching problem of Kelpara retrieval. The Kelpians had been travelling away from the Kelpian homeworld on impulse power with the hope that given that Kelparas had only equally fast ships, they would be forever out of reach. However, there was a mass consensus aboard the Kelpian ship, that the Kelparas were indeed catching up. 

Excalibur sensors confirmed that the Kelpians were indeed correct. It was not known at the time, but this sense is now agreed to have been transmitted to the Kelpian herd through the use of their threat ganglia.  


Captain (herd-leader) Solsu relayed this information over an insecure radio channel that was readily available to the entirety of the Excalibur crew. While a majority of the crew reported feeling “sympathetic” to the Kelpian plight, the consensus was that the federation could not and would not become involved in a civil war. 

This consensus broke down as more details of the Kelpara threat were revealed over subsequent communications. The Kelpian status as “livestock” and “food” to the carnivorous Kelpara species was met with ship wide horror and radicalization into two ship ideologies. In one camp, interventionists argued that it was morally repugnant to abandon the Kelpians to be literally eaten and returned to factory farms, while non-interventionists argued that the Kelpian status as foodstock only strengthened the need to comply with the prime directive. 

Ultimately, the crew elected to maintain non-interference. However, no convincing lie could be formulated for said non-interference, and after a period of consultation Captain Thomson and her crew elected to explain their choice not to interfere as resulting from an adherence to non-interference in less developed/evolved societies. 

Solsu and her crew were incensed, and demanded to know at which point they would be “sufficiently evolved” but Thomson and her crew refused to answer. 

That was the first phase of Kelpian-federation relations, and followed a period of Kelpian-Kelpara civil war that had lasted 30 years. 


End file.
